ABIDJAN: Burkina Faso’s ruling military leader on Friday dismissed the country’s prime minister and dissolved the government, according to a presidential decree transmitted to AFP.
The sacked premier had served at the head of three successive governments, surviving each reshuffle.
No reason was given for the dismissal of Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, who was named as premier in October 2022 after the coup that brought Captain Ibrahim Traore to power.
“The prime minister’s official functions are terminated,” said the decree, adding that members of the dissolved government would “carry out ongoing business until the formation of a new government.”
The west African country was plunged into instability by a January 2022 coup in which Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power.
Little more than eight months later, Damiba himself was overthrown by Traore, 36, who now heads the junta regime.
Damiba, who ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore, is currently in exile in neighboring Togo.
The junta has made the return of national sovereignty one of its priorities and regularly hits out against Western powers.
Burkina Faso has allied with fellow Sahel nations Mali and Niger, which are also led by military juntas following a string of coups since 2020.
The three nations joined together last September under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with former colonial ruler France and pivoting toward Russia.
Burkina Faso was a French colony for the first half of the 20th century, and relations have soured with Paris following the 2022 coup.
Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore last month said Burkina Faso’s cooperation with Russia “better suited” his country than its historic ties with France.
Along with Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso announced in January they were turning their backs on the Economic Community of West African States – ECOWAS – an organization they accused of being manipulated by Paris.
The three neighbors are all battling jihadist violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
In Burkina Faso, about two million people have been forced to flee their homes by the conflict, which has killed more than 26,000 people since 2015, including soldiers and civilians, according to monitoring group ACLED.
Moscow has sent military instructors there – as well as to several other African countries – to help in the fight against Islamist violence.
Burkina Faso junta chief dissolves government
https://arab.news/5fn5y
Burkina Faso junta chief dissolves government
- Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela had served at the head of three successive governments, surviving each reshuffle
- No reason was given for his dismissal, who was named as premier in October 2022 after the coup
US bombers join Japanese jets in show of force after China–Russia drills
- Japan says US B-52 bombers flew with Japanese F-35s and F-15s
- South Korea and Japan have scrambled jets during Chinese and Russian drills
TOKYO: US nuclear-capable bombers flew over the Sea of Japan alongside Japanese fighter jets on Wednesday, Tokyo said, in a show of force following Chinese and Russian drills in the skies and seas around Japan and South Korea.
Japan and the US “reaffirmed their strong resolve to prevent any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force and confirmed the readiness posture of both the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) and US forces,” Japan’s defense ministry said in a press release on Thursday.
The flight of two US B-52 strategic bombers with three Japanese F-35 stealth fighters and three F-15 air-superiority jets was the first time the US had asserted its military presence since China began military exercises in the region last week.
The display follows a joint flight of Chinese and Russian strategic bombers in the East China Sea and western Pacific on Tuesday and separate Chinese aircraft carrier drills that prompted Japan to scramble jets that Tokyo said were targeted by radar beams.
The encounter drew criticism from Washington, which said the incident was “not conducive to regional peace and stability” and reaffirmed that its alliance with Japan was “unwavering.”
Both Japan and South Korea host US forces, with Japan home to the biggest concentration of American military power overseas, including an aircraft carrier strike group and a US Marine expeditionary force.
China denied Tokyo’s accusation, saying Japanese jets flying near the carrier had endangered its air operations south of Japan.
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defense identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Regional tensions have risen since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island, which sits just over 100 km (62 miles) from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.
